La región salvaje

After a meteorite strike, inhuman lust overcomes a woman on a bare matress in a remote shack in Guanajuato, Mexico – home of director Amat Escalante (whose father Oscar has a supporting role). Escalante, who won Best Director at Cannes for Heli (2013), won in Venice this time around. And just like Heli with its harrowing torture scenes, La région salvaje or The Untamed (in English) explicitly depicts dark issues.
Dedicated to Polish director Andrzej Żuławski who died in 2016 and whose Possession (1981) was an inspiration, the film contrasts the fantasy aspect (living out repressed sexual desires) with a soap-like family drama and homophobia in Mexico’s macho society. The horror is heightened by slow zooms, eerie noises and the dark imagery captured by cameraman Manuel Alberto Claro, who previously worked with Lars von Trier.